German company Wolffkran has sent three of its tower cranes to help develop a project on Vienna’s most popular shopping strip, the Mariahilfer Straße.
Purchased by Austrian contractor Habau Hoch-und Tiefbaugesellschaft, the tower cranes will be put to work to develop a traditional-style department store that will also feature a hotel, restaurants, and a publicly accessible green roof garden.
The three machines in use are the WOLFF 8033.16, the WOLFF 7532.16 Cross, and the flattop WOLFF 6023.8 Clear. Wolffkran laid out the plans to erect the cranes so the only crane requiring assistance from a mobile crane was the 8033.16. After being assembled, the tower crane then helped assemble the next two, reducing the requirements of a mobile crane on the busy shopping street.
“For the assembly of the roughly 14-tonne jib of the WOLFF 7532.16, our team had to calculate an overload hoist for the WOLFF 8033.16 since the crane was statically reaching its limits at this point,” said Zeljko Tenjovic, Managing Director of Wolffkran Austria GmbH.
Adding to the complexities of the assembly process was the density of infrastructure around the buildings, according to Habau team’s Site Manager Kurt Mörth.
“There is a high density of buildings all around. Neighboring buildings may not be slewed over at all, and the areas frequented by pedestrians may not be slewed over with load,” said Mörth. “Furthermore, pipelines installed in the surrounding area and the existing underground parking garage limited the possible locations for the crane.”
Awaiting the Wolffkran team is a complex disassembly process too; the greatest challenge of the project according to Tenjovic. The 7532.16 and the 6023.8 cannot be dismantled using a mobile crane because they are located in the middle of the building being constructed. Because of this, the 7532.16 will first dismantle the 6023.8, and afterwards, it will be dismantled by the 8033.16 standing 60 meters away, meaning the 13-tonne counter jib of the 7532.16 will have to be split into two parts.
Habau and Wolffkran are collaborating on several projects, including the Harbor Portal in Linz and the Vienna Twenty-Two residential quarter. The Lamarr project is anticipated to be finished by 2024.
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